The story of the missing Russian crown jewels begins, as so many great adventures do, in a library. In this case, it was the U.S. Geological Survey Library in Reston, Va. Richard Huffine, the director, was looking through the library's rare-book collection when he came upon an oversized volume. "And there's no markings on the outside, there's no spine label or anything like that," he says. "This one caught our eye, and we pulled it aside to take a further look at it." Researcher Jenna Nolt was one of those who took a look. "The title page is completely hand...